Evaluating the socio-economic impact of rural road projects : three approaches to baseline and follow-up data collection designs

Four steps in planning the surveys are discussed: (1) identifying the project's most likely and/or important socioeconomic impacts (both direct and derived, the latter of which emerge after some time and may be better addressed through later impact evaluations); (2) specifying data requirements to measure these impacts; (3) selecting an appropriate study approach, in most cases based principally on funds available for evaluation (three general approaches - minimum, low cost, and high cost - are compared in a table); and (4) writing a scope of work based on the decisions made concerning the impacts to be evaluated, data requirements, and study approach. A concluding section cautions that, where baseline data are inadequate or unusable or where host country support for data collection has waned, it is prudent to evaluate the usefulness of a follow-up survey before wasting valuable energy and resources. Appended is a sample scope of work.